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Calling the family courts ‘corrupt’ is the real dishonesty

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corrupt

adjective

  1. Having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.

*        *       *

The client came into my room. Even through his suit I could see that he was a muscular man: not tall, but thick-set, and clearly able to look after himself, in a slightly intimidating sort of way. He was about forty years old. He had come to discuss the issue of custody of his children, following his separation from his wife. The children were living with her, but he wanted a custody order in his favour. I advised him that getting such an order would be very difficult. I could see that he was unhappy with my advice, obviously being a man who was used to getting his own way. I began to feel a little nervous that he might lose his temper and become angry at me. Instead, he did something else: he asked me whether we could bribe the judge to grant him custody of the children. I was shocked, but managed to stammer out my reply: “Sorry, but it doesn’t work like that.”

That was more than thirty years ago. However, if I were asked that question again today, my reply would be the same. Whilst there may be the very odd exception, family court judges are not corrupt. Sorry to disappoint, but they do not act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.

Let’s look into that in a little more detail, bearing in mind the definition of ‘corrupt’, as set out above (courtesy of Oxford Dictionaries).

Firstly, as my little anecdote above indicated, it is not possible to bribe a judge. Otherwise, they do not receive money or personal gain of any other sort for deciding cases in a particular way. They receive a salary, which is not affected in any way by how they decide cases (magistrates receive no remuneration, only expenses). They could decide one hundred children cases in favour of the mother, it would make no difference to them personally, financially or otherwise.

The same applies to every other professional involved in the family justice system. It makes no difference to, for example, a Cafcass officer which way a case goes. It also makes no difference to the lawyers involved in a case (not that they play a direct role in deciding cases): in general, they charge and get paid at the same rate, irrespective of which party they are acting for, or whether that party was successful.

Another suggestion that has been made is that the system benefits by somehow making more work for itself. Obviously, this does not affect those on a salary. I suppose it could benefit the lawyers but, as I have said, they play no direct role in deciding cases.

In a quarter of a century of practising family law I never personally came across a corrupt judge, or heard of anyone else who did. I also don’t recall reading of any case in which a family judge acted dishonestly in return for money or personal gain. I’m not saying that corrupt judges don’t exist, just that my experience and knowledge suggests that they are extremely rare. So rare, in fact, that it would be an absolutely absurd extrapolation to conclude that the entire family court system is corrupt.

In short, whatever adjective you want to use to describe the family justice system, ‘corrupt’ is not the one. It is inaccurate. It is wrong. The family justice system is certainly not perfect, but corrupt it ain’t.

I can see the allure of using a word such as ‘corrupt’. It is dramatic, headline-grabbing, and suggestive of systemic failures. But even if you think that the system does suffer from such failures, that doesn’t entitle you to use such a word. I suspect that it is often said completely thoughtlessly, without the consideration of its implications, but that is no excuse for making such a serious allegation, against an entire group of people.

Bandying about allegations of corruption willy-nilly does not make them true. As I have said, even if you have some evidence of one judge being corrupt, that does not mean that the allegation can be levelled at all judges. Making false allegations is not only a slur upon the judiciary, it is also incredibly irresponsible, giving those with no experience of the system entirely the wrong impression, an impression that can seriously taint the decisions that they make in connection with their own matter.

If you are tempted to jump on the bandwagon and tell the world that our family courts are corrupt, stop and engage your critical faculties for a moment. Look at the definition above and ask yourself whether that describes the courts, or the system. A brief analysis will tell you that it does not, and to say that they are would be completely dishonest.

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

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Comments(80)

  1. Dr. Manhattan. says:

    “If you are tempted to jump on the bandwagon and tell the world that our family courts are corrupt, stop and engage your critical faculties for a moment”
    Really!
    you never fail to make us laugh at your defence of the family courts.
    .
    Dont forget about High court Judge Justice Pauffley who exposed the truth about Family court Judges and Social workers.

    “Judges and social workers have been conspiring to remove children unjustly from their parents, a scathing High Court ruling said today.
    It condemned family court judges for a ‘clandestine arrangement’ which meant that they simply rubber-stamped the demands of social workers without giving a fair hearing to the pleas of parents.
    Rulings by family judges were ‘cut and pasted’ from recommendations emailed to the court by social workers, the High Court found.
    “The High Court judge warned that ‘the practices I have described are not confined to this area but are widespread across the country’.
    .
    But then i guess youd rather sweep this under the Carpet.
    what a complete Joke.

    • Alan Ramsey says:

      Family Courts are institutionally corrupt. Its starting to resemble Bleak House. In a modern society allowing judges to pick winners just doesnt work. The current shambolic mess is based on who can afford lawfare. Its little wonder that those profiteering from the vunerable fail to see the problems. More rule of law, less rule of lawyers.

      • Rita says:

        Have you read book Behind the Iron Door of a Democracy by Dara Stefan on Amazon? it is truly sickening. Sounds like full-blown corruption and sadistic collective abuse of power.

    • matt says:

      UK divorce courts not corrupt? What planet are you living on? I have been through two divorces and each of them was like a kind of ritualistic stage production, with lawyers inventing rubbish and writing deliberately inflammatory letters solely in order to prolong the proceedings for their own financial gain. and all of it overseen by judges who simply allowed it to happen.

      Even obvious and outright lies go unchallenged by the judges who, no doubt, are looking forward to future work from the lawyers concerned.

      I think that there is a very good case for regarding the UK divorce courts as probably the biggest organised crime syndicate in Europe.

      • Dr. Manhattan. says:

        i couldnt agree more. 100% corrupt.

      • Peter smith says:

        100% correct .
        UK family court is the biggest corrupt gravy train in existence.
        Judges , solicitors, caffcass , dodgy coppers all singing of the same hym sheet and agenda.
        This being the complete disenfranchisement of the male role model from the family along with , most importantly stripping him financially and transfer of all wealth and assets to the newly single mother .
        And people wonder why society in britain is broken?
        All done by design , family court at the heart of it .
        Oxford family court one of the worst.

      • kevin says:

        wow last comment on the corrupt FAMILY COURTS in 2017 they are run by self appointed barristers and firms of solicitors OWNED by Judges, they have the police in their pockets and childrens services ALL CORRUPT, they are a partisan organisation who deny you legal representation, S.L.A.P.S, they are the LAW SOCIETY now fully feeding off the Civil Society who pay there wages through legal aid when they get their bogus NMO for the Executive cheating woman who left, neglected then abused her own two children to the point of making them homeless and throwing all their possessions in a skip a day later after the ILLEGAL EVICTION achieved by a Occupation Order, yes an Occupation Order obtained to throw me the single parent for the last two years on £84pm with both kids, (one a minor who started his final exams the week later), on the street, by force (police x20 TAU force), this was achieved two years after she left, neglected and abused her kids while the child services and police watched and contributed to child abuse, and you think they are serving a democratic public, do we vote and pay for this?.

    • RAJESH MATTU says:

      FAMILY COURT IS 100% CORRUPT AND I HAVE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT .IF YOU NEED EVIDENCE THEN DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME .

      • Johana says:

        Hi , i am to see that i am not the only one in thinking about the family court been corrupt. my ex is been taking me to court since 2017 and still on going the judge is more like in his side even the judge have private conversation to my ex barrister for recommendation but also social service is on his side regardless that many things been happening i will like to sue social service and complying about the judge as everything is been doing on my ex favor i been discriminated by the judge even by social services . if you can advise me in what to do it will be grateful .

    • Will says:

      I went to court for financial settlement and neither my ex or I was represented. I gave a folder containing the following documents to the court F.A.O the Judge 3 days before the hearing.

      3 independent valuations showing £35,000 equity in the jointly owned matrimonial home
      A letter proving my pensions were all frozen before I met my ex
      3 letters from pension providers showing £18,173.76 withdrawn from my pension funds in order to purchase Matrimonial home
      A letter for my debt company who saw the Matrimonial home as an asset of my IVA and that I was in debt for £22,000
      A letter from a previous hearing awarding me £600 costs

      The judge gave me back the folder claiming there was nothing of any interest and the £600 was at his discretion and therefore he was dismissing it. I told him he was out of order and he should read the documents properly. At that point, we were both asked to leave the courtroom. 10 minutes later he called us both back and apologized but the recording device had not been switched on properly and that he needs to run over a summary of the case again but not to interrupt him.

      He mentioned that pensions were equal in value and I had no right to a claim to hers which was ongoing throughout the marriage. He said I was not in an IVA that it was in fact Debt Management and ordered me to sign over the Matrimonial home within 56 days and ordered me to continue paying £300 per month child maintenance for 12 months and then continue till I was assessed by the CSA.

      If that Judge was not corrupt then why did he ask us to leave the room for 10 minutes?

    • Flic says:

      Well said. The problem with organisational narcissism, as seen in family courts (or any court) means the system cannot see nor accept its own failings and as “agents” of the system, that benefit from the state, lawyers are under the Milgram effect and cannot be critical in their thinking. The first port of call is accountability, meaning the sector would need to accept it is possible and that more could be done to prevent the problem. It is now 2020 and figures of children taken by the state continue to rise, in a system that cannot afford to provide the help it feels would be beneficial and yet continues to cut funding for (they will sell the “demand”). Not to mention the fact there is almost zero enforcement for accountability. The system is set up for racketeering. The setting up of prisoners dilemma’s between 2 separated parents (as statistically predictable odds follows) means the state are always better off taking a child; and lose out if the don’t. The system is corrupt and the unscrupulous can easily take advantage because of it. Those in it, because of the Milgram effect and confirmation bias; they will never see it.

    • C.L. says:

      There IS MORE than 1 definition of.. Corrupt .. Typically the difficulty of family cases, eg those where family members are in conflict, pose dilemas which the family require SUPPORT for. . from authorities who are not privy to all the family members experience. This puts professsionals at a disadvantage. They are reliant upon structure of proceedures to guide them through, which often offer inadequate solutions.. to circumstances the families.. themselves.. find insurmountable. Individual adults and children alike then are vulnerable and exposed to the case workers personal and group opinions.. arrived at through verbal input and observing varying degree of behaviour. Crucial actual facts may be dismissed in favour of what appears to be valid alternatives professionals choose to believe.. this then directs the case towards a goal where any diversion is discarded and deceipt — obvious or otherwise intrudes to achieve the chosen outcome.. there are alternatives to the word Corrupt..
      and Again..there IS also MORE than 1 definition.

  2. Dolphin says:

    I would agree, I do not think any Judge in a family court setting is corrupt.

    But, there are far too many judges , in a family court playing “devil’s advocate”

    I have witnessed it personally. That hear say and acussation were believed. No proof. Just an accusation.

    Far too many accusations are made and statistics prove a one sided balance.

    Equality ?

    We are far from reaching such in a family court room in the UK.

    In a final hearing, I was allowed to stay in my son’s life. He has gone on to play football with a premiere league team. Came 4th in a triathlon. That all came from me. A dad. Far too many are removed because of deceit & lies.

    How many dad’s commit suicide ?

    It is truly appalling.

    It is a hate crime to remove a parent.

    Without any real foundation. It cannot be hearsay.

  3. Michele Simmons says:

    researchingreform.net/2017/09/06/lord-justice-mcfarlane-a-barrister-wouldnt-tell-a-lie/ This is why everything should be audio recorded and it should be mandatory.

    If there is an adoption order x 2 for one child and an adoption certificate x 2 for same said child, where the second one came many years later (for both) with no adoption placement breakdown and said child knew nothing about the name change (be it fully or in part) once the child has almost reached adulthood-would you say no money has been made from it/there was no corruption, when potentially there could be double Case files held on record (double dipping potentially)

    I can provide you with an example-

    researchingreform.net/2017/03/09/your-story-adoption-certificates-and-child-identity/

    I believe that in cases like these that the orders should be able to be challenged with a full investigation in tow. (re: potential null or void Court Order) because they tend to be put down to some sort of administrative error (misinterpretation) when it could have been a misrepresentation.

  4. Tim Haines says:

    So when a local authority puts forward an “independent expert” who just happens to be on their own payroll to the tune of £86000 pa, then puffs up their status from “Mrs” to “Dr” to match the defence’s proposed expert, and the court accepts this (“Baby with no name” case), that is not corrupt?

    • CB says:

      You will never get an answer
      Split Cases ALWAYS start with a baby with false name, outrageous, false accusations within first half of split case FPC, the legal then convince the accused to admit to something OR they will Lose their Baby/Child/Children FOREVER, which they adhere to, JOB DONE, Baby/Child/Children gone, parents deemed as dis-honest for confessing, HARD TO BELIEVE, I witnessed this first hand, DID the same with my Grandchild, No lies from my family or false confession??? So they took him illegally, had him adopted illegally, The LA had the courts at their mercy, having all legal and judges at their mercy, all had to tow the illegal line

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      The corruption is as real as your hand in front of your face.
      i know of a family court judge who runs her own Law firm from the same address as the Barristers chambers who represent parents and Local Authorities in her court room. how corrupt is that.

  5. Paul says:

    I think that about sums it up nicely Dr. Judges are not making decissions CAFCAS are.
    Would you not agree that hiring the services of legal professionals influances the final decission grately in your favour ? AKA buying a result. If the judgement was impartial then this should not be so. This does answer the above discription of corruption.

  6. StuG says:

    Probably the most superficial and omissive article on the ways organisations get corrupted one could ever read. But then it is Bolch writing it. The man who job i seems to be to put rubbish on Stowe’s blog to attract clickbait.

    Lawyers do cheat. According to BuzzFeed, they’ve just been caught out handing backhanders to the NCDV for their usurping of s45 FLA 1996. Lawyers cause cases to protract as a result whilst fleecing the public purse. Judges refuse to hold return hearings in line with s45 and extend interim injunctions so lawyers get legal aid. It’s a scam long since noted in the High Court. lawyers don’t make decisions but they do influence them.

    CAFCASS are institutionally corrupt. They are not trained to deal with cases.

    The courts are corrupt, in that their service is not designed for families, the legal model does not work for these cases and the lawyers and judges who persistently try to tinker with the system are the engineers they seem to think they are.

    There are other definition of corruption John has missed. But then, he is a family lawyer spouting his views, not an investigator or someone qualified in a respectable discipline with principals based in science. The other definitions of corruption are:

    “change or debase by making errors or unintentional alterations” – that happens in family courts
    and
    “to degrade with unsound principles or moral values” – most certainly, especially where CAFCASS is concerned

    As ever, it’s not the truth that matters, but truth-forming. Try harder.

  7. Marie says:

    I know first hand of a corrupt family judge at [name of court removed] a who done a court worker a favour for a family member and it was a conflict of interest as the court member worked on the case along side the district judge. I know this as I have all the case papers it’s there in black and white
    (*comment moderated)

  8. Julie Haines says:

    When people use the word “corrupt” in relation to family courts, they are applying a wider and more commonly held meaning than what the dictionary says. Language is like that.

    So I agree that money doesn’t come in to it with judges but personal gain may well in the form of promotions, and validation by the relevant peer groups.

    I’ve pointed out issues with procedure only to be shouted by a judge and or the judge asking for example the children’s guardian’s advocate, who then backs up the incorrect law, or procedure.

    Corruption may be passive in that they just do things like they always have , that still happens too.

    The corruption is not just focused on the judges but some of the barristers too, the “professional losers” as we all know. They lack the will and the drive to really make change and make changes stick,

    Then the “bottom feeders” the social workers. They lie on oath about they have experienced with families. That is corruption.

    Bolch is wrong and he knows it.

  9. John Murphy says:

    Try the definition at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corrupt, it is a little broader and several definitions are appropo. !!??

  10. Paul says:

    I the problem goes a lot higher up and starts with government targets, also the caffcass officers which are mostly ex-social workers from the local council who are definitely corrupt and normally pressured from the managers.
    Unfortunately a lot of the judges and solicitors have not experience corruption from Social workers but only seen information presented to them in the court, which has been written by professionals with motives to get promoted and stay in a job.
    Outcomes of the case are also pot luck what judge you get which means the court is probably not really corrupt, however the system leading up to case is definitely corrupt just like the criminal court who used to hang people for being witches.

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      “the system leading up to case is definitely corrupt just like the criminal court who used to hang people for being witches.”
      .
      Paul i couldnt agree more. but watch out for the Bolch backlash. he wont even acknowledge the Justice Pauffley story. strange isnt it.

  11. Lolo says:

    It seems like your only defence of the Family Courts being corrupt is the dictionary definition of the word.

    My interpretation of corruption is very different.

    Get a job with the local authority
    (*comment moderated)

  12. Y says:

    15 years experience of the STAR CHAMBERS that were Abolished cerca 100 years ago. CORRUPT in the true dictionary description of the word ( and oh yes , they have been using language trickery and deceit to trap the unwitting for a very long time. legalese has nothing to do with natural basic law maxims . Corruption is not a broad enough description of these family torture chambers , when we are dealing with miscreants who worship mammon . They have put a price on the heads of the priceless and all involved unjustly enrich themselves on the back of destroyed natural and loving families for the sake of their own unjust enrichment . Perjury is rife, they rely on bluff false accusations based on assumption , presumption and hearsay. Family Tribunals are NOT courts, and unfortunately for their victims and survivors Iniquity is prevailing over Equity. No justice can be found in ‘courts’ of trickery and deceit . These miscreants are rich and we are poor in terms of CASH , as everything in the system is based on ability or lack of ability to pay huge sums to traitors and tyrants. In my informed opinion. We know the game, some of us at least, and the game is up. No Lawful action can come out of fraud, and fraud is rife. Extortion racketeers running amok . I would love to see the proof that I am wrong here. My Grandchild is Know in their in “professional” circles as ” The One That Got Away” , their own words not mine. They failed because of due diligence on our part and the involvement of American Dr’s who maintained their integrity at all times. The Forced Adoption agenda failed here. Despite their best efforts to fabricate lies to fullfill their agenda. There is no integrity whatsoever to be found in the multi agency private company draconian system , its all profit based for shareholders and stake holders here. Agenda is to destroy families including innocent families from our own experience and research . I am a former elected councilor with vast experience and have seen through it.

  13. Paul says:

    If they are or not corrupt their is a ‘damaging’ perception that they are.
    Where their is smoke their is fire as they say.
    It is absolutly possibly to change the system to make improvements and put more safe guards in place to alter this perception.
    Make no mistake this perception is chorosive. This undermines the respect people should have for law. Hence the low moral of the judiciary. That too is a problem.
    Its in your (legal sector) interest to deal with the problem and tackle it head on.
    You have serious perception problem.
    Men in the family sector report and perceive (Bias)
    Most people in the system perceive (corruption)
    Denial is a complete waste of time.
    System needs to modernise. Stamp out the bad eggs. You need to hold yourselves to impecable standards.
    When an issue is raise during a case then it needs dealing with proparly. Not sweeping under the carpet.
    Putting your fingers in your ears and stamping your feet and denying these things are taking place is not doing you any favours at all.
    The Legal sector needs to take its PR more seriously.
    Take action. Evolve. Improve. Deal with it !!!
    Its not going away.
    Why not have feed back forms after hearings. Guage from the source what people feel about whats taking place. Have independant observers.
    Make the judges and solicitors record availible on line. Have a rating system. Even builders have these now.
    Only way to combat corruption allegations is more transparency.
    While courts are behind closed doors. The perception is entirely justified. Your perception of been corrupt is going nowhere.

  14. Y says:

    respectfully bringing to your attention that the time on the latest comment is incorrect. I am typing this at 11.26 am . Very strange indeed .

  15. CB says:

    Not a court in the world can allow Evidence entering in there courts in the name of a child that has never existed, A childs birth certified name cannot be changed by Local Authorities, this is identity theft, YET this is what happens in 99% of child care cases, to stop the truth, entering the light of day within the proceedings, covering up for other professionals wrong doings, birth brain damage and being sued for negligence, etc, the lawyers we entrust, the system we entrust all stacked against parental rights and rights of the child these lawyers have no fear of consequences of their actions, slaves to the devils work

  16. CB says:

    May I also state
    My Grandsons case was first held in [names removed],Criminal Lawyer same firm as the later Family Lawyer, Mother only childs name [name removed] (Missing out his birth certified middle name initial) Mother found innocent
    I did not think anyone could be tried for the same case twice in this country by changing the name of the child??????????????
    (*comment moderated)

  17. Ted says:

    Moral corruption and lack of care for families is unlikely to be much different in the UK than the US, where it is endemic. This is because normal families work problems out amongst themselves, without family law; the families that don’t, and go through family court, are the ‘high conflict’ ones, who have a cluster B personality disordered parent driving the conflict. As law is the number 2 favourite profession of psychopaths (the cluster B disorder of narcissism ) you can’t expect family law to admit to this problem. But the empathic parents, who are a victim of family law and cluster B predators, increasingly understand this is what’s going on. They understand that this is why family law will not reform itself into the empathic, emotionally intelligent system parents need, and will instead have to be down-graded in favour of a new human service for families or abolished.
    (*Moderator’s note: links to other sites are not allowed in comments)

  18. Ted says:

    The ongoing, decades long, ignorance and incompetence of the family law system about personality disorders is abusing and killing children. Courts need to be reformed or abolished.

    “When one parent intentionally tries to destroy a child’s relationship with the other parent it impacts on many areas of the child’s life, both in the present and into the future. The child is isolated and often removed from their entire community of support and love and provided with no tools to cope with the loss. Targeted parents are misrepresented as bad or abusive parents and they spend most of their time defending themselves and being treated like criminals, often facing a presumption of guilt.

    These scenarios, known to many as “parental alienation”, have become an epidemic in the Family Court system and children are being used as weapons and leverage to emotionally, financially and physically destroy targeted parents. Children and parents are taking their own lives as a result of failures to intervene by the courts or authorities, yet no one appears to be measuring this. The Family Courts say they are acting in ‘the best interests of children’, but how can they claim this when they are not even evaluating the outcomes of their own decisions? There is no follow-up at all on outcomes of court judgments.”

    The Family Court process makes these cases significantly worse by drawing them out over many years, allowing a parent to isolate a child or children from the other parent without any intervention or penalties. The child is left in emotional turmoil with no tools to cope and no support. Targeted parents spend their lives under the magnifying glass, having to defend and explain themselves in a legal system that has very little understanding about this insidious form of emotional abuse.

    Family courts, child protection services and misused violence restraining orders allow an emotionally abusive parent to buy time to influence the child and their entire community. Interviewing, questioning and counselling techniques used with child witnesses are often so suggestive that they can substantially alter the child’s recollections of events and thus compromise the reliability of the child’s personal knowledge. By the time a case is heard, children have been deeply manipulated and the emotionally abusive parent has often developed a team (sometimes including school staff and other parents) who have sided with them. With the prolonged timescales of court procedures, children often get to an age where the courts want to hear “the voice of the child.” Children who have been brainwashed, coerced, intimidated and/or manipulated by a parent have no voice – because all you hear is a child rejecting a parent.

    Experts and researchers from around the world have found that parents who turn their children against other family members typically have a personality disorder or mental illness, experienced trauma in childhood, or simply want revenge on their former partner.”

    Many children never recover from this form of emotional abuse. Those children and teens that do eventually reunite with the erased parent often leave siblings behind and end up alienated from them in turn. The months and years that follow reunification need to be spent unpacking the damage caused from the emotional and psychological manipulation of parental alienation. Many alienated children who reunite with the targeted parent return suffering from depression, eating disorders, sleep problems, complex grief, poor body image, weight loss/gain, brain fog, physical fatigue, lack of friendships, substance abuse, social identity problems and loneliness. In the most extreme cases, various forms of self-harm even lead to suicide.”
    Children forced to take sides face emotional crisis, Amanda Sillars, LinkedIn.

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      “Targeted parents are misrepresented as bad or abusive parents and they spend most of their time defending themselves and being treated like criminals, often facing a presumption of guilt.”
      .
      this isnt just the case with parents against each other , its also the case with Social workers severing contact with a pack of lies. the child then goes on to believe the parents have deserted them when it is no such thing. Social workers play a big role in parental Alienation during court proceedings and beyond. their management usually back them up all the way.

      • Ted says:

        Social workers, therapists, GPS – anyone carrying their own unhealed childhood wounds, driving them to narcissism, are candidates to ally with the narcissistic parent against the healthy one. Everyone involved in family welfare needs training in this; no one is getting it. As I said above, PD parents are the majority of litigants in family courts, but courts don’t want to know about this because: law is a low empathy profession, family law has no penalty against lying and has a 51% standard of evidence, all of which attracts paychopath-narcissists. Family law is a ridiculously inappropriate system for supporting families going through break – down, this is not accidental …

        • Dr. Manhattan. says:

          i can see your point.
          kind of like the predatory food chain of the amazon jungle. it only takes one to take down the prey but there are many others moving in for a piece of the action.

        • Stitchedup says:

          Well put, but it’s not just personality disorders that come into play, it’s feminist political correctness which provides the fog for those disorders to be hidden.

          • Ted says:

            Dr Manhattan, yes, it’s part of the narcissism dynamic, the flying monkeys and other predators align with the main predator, to avoid facing their own pain.

            Stitchedup, supremacist feminism, which is the dominant ideology in society, is misandrist and is a natural home for female predator narcissists (men’s rights groups can be a home for male predators playing the victim, but as these groups are not usually supremacist, but fighting for justice, there’s less scope for the predators).

          • Dr. Manhattan. says:

            Ted i was mainly referring to all the professionals making a very good living from the destruction of entire families via the SS and family courts. there is quite a list of them making a lot of money and its not just judges, solicitors and barristers.

          • Ted says:

            Sure, feminism is a useful ideology for lawyers, solicitors, family therapists, etc to hide their exploitation behind. My ex’s lawyer in the divorce claimed I was the part of the patriarchy, was exploiting my ex, and that she was fighting for justice. She was delusional and using the ideology to try to cover her predatory behaviour; I had already given my ex enough to live on comfortably for the rest of her life; she and her ‘feminist’ lawyer got no more. But healthy, non PD women are exploited by this system as much as men; what’s really happening, whether under the guise of feminism or not, is that the predators in the system align with the PD parents for gain. The destruction of families by family courts and their hangers on is part of the narcissism of our society.

            The U.K. has recently published a document on the standards expected from family court psychology expert witnesses. There is no mention of PDs and they explicitly exclude knowledge of psychopathy being required (pg 20, sorry, this site won’t let me publish the reference but you can find it under “Psychologists as expert witnesses in the Family Courts in England and Wales: Standards, competencies and expectations”)! I am going to challenge the Justice Board on this.

    • Ted says:

      CEO (this site doesn’t allow links but you can find the research by a search with “Psychopath Favourite Profession” ). Their illness (the same as narcissism) makes them covert power; they lack empathy – business and law align with that.

      • Dr. Manhattan. says:

        “they lack empathy – business and law align with that.”
        Yes Ted,
        not so different from investment banking and wall street etc.
        its a very sad state of affairs indeed. of course just like ancient Rome or Nazi Germany its going to crumble as the people wont tolerate it for much longer.

        • Ted says:

          “the people wont tolerate it for much longer.”

          Exactly. The internet has broken through the decades of complicity and secrecy and parents will no longer tolerate losing their children through an ignorant, incompetent, abusive family court system. Change is coming and they will be forced to accept it; there’s orders of magnitude more of us than them.

          • Dr. Manhattan. says:

            “parents will no longer tolerate losing their children through an ignorant, incompetent, abusive family court system”
            .
            i totally agree and when you look at the population of the UK its tens of millions against the nutcases controlling, manipulating and persecuting the people. all for power and greed.

    • Milan says:

      How many cases of ‘parental alienation’ aren’t really ‘parental alienation’ at all though? A reply above mentioned that often family court cases are driven by a narcissist -often an abusive, controlling narcissist. How many narcissists use the court system and the local authority to perpetuate the abuse that has been metered out to their family over a number of years? How many families witness the legal system bending over for social services and Cafcass ‘in the name of justice!!? More support and advice needs to be given to parents when they are left in a situation where they are being taken to court by the local authority and the narcissist. The legal system is a minefield, before and after court, when the poor children have been snatched away!

  19. Mark says:

    This blog is a blind look at the story with rose tinted goggles on. From my experience, wishful thinking on the part of the writer. It is false propaganda. I am sitting on hard evidence of that. I am happy to share all of this evidence with you Marilyn, in person, for as long as it takes. If I change your mind, you promise to write a blog on examples of corruption in the family court?

  20. Phil parker says:

    Does suppressing and covering up evidence make a judge honest. Saying social workers have complete integrity and preventing investigation of this. Effectively covering up a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, misconduct in a public office and perjury to hide the judges prejudice and discrimination.
    I met a family court judge who lacks honesty and integrity but who cares it is only harming innocent children

  21. Marie says:

    Reading back over comments I notice mine from back in September has removed the name of the court . I would like to ask why ? At the end of the day I have paperwork to prove what I said is the truth. I could of named the. District judge involved but chose not to.

    • Cameron Paterson says:

      The name was removed because you were making quite a serious, potentially libelous allegation, even though you didn’t name the specific judge. This isn’t the venue for those

      • Marie says:

        I was not making potential libellous allegations I was speaking the truth.i would not say anything that I didn’t have the proof of .

        • Cameron Paterson says:

          We don’t have access to your evidence so we had no way of assessing how true your claim was – and as the publishers of this blog we would have had liability

          • Marie says:

            We withdrew our application in April 2016 . 3 months later we learnt that a family member
            Of my son ex partner who our case was against had been working on the case along side the judge her name is all over case papers . We are still on with getting this sorted out through the help of our local MP. There is a lot more that went on behind closed doors , I have a lot of evidence in our favour not only on paper but photos and videos

          • Dr. Manhattan. says:

            I would say keep grinding as thats the only way anything well get done.
            interestingly In a speech last week, President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, called on the government to allow journalists to have full access to evidence submitted in family court cases.
            The President also said that secrecy within family courts meant that judges were able to get away with what are sometimes significant mistakes. Despite suggesting that factors like exhaustion contributed to judicial error, he went on to say that judges should not be immune from criticism, and that journalists should be able to access the evidence in family cases as well as attend hearings, with a view to offering an analysis of what unfolds inside the system:
            He said
            “The simple fact is that at present journalists can’t do that without access to the evidence and without reporting what went on in court and saying well, this judge seems to be listening to a different witness than I, and the impression I got from listening to this witness was X,Y,Z and the judge says A,B,C. So I think there are very real problems there… We’ve got to be much more honest about this, and if we are honest about it, things go wrong.”
            He also said
            “I have a terrible feeling that if you actually stopped some of the parents in these care cases as they were going out of court at the end and you asked them what was going on, what’s been happening, what’s the answer, they’d be unable to explain…And that is an indictment of our system, not of them.”
            —————————————————-

      • Milan says:

        …a bit like a gagging order!!

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      Try the Researching Reform Blog.

  22. Terry james Scales says:

    The reality of the situation concerning family court corruption is rooted in ideology. This ideology hates marriage, hates everything a marriage stands for. When you have this ideology underpinning the structure of family law then you are dealing with a system that transcends the individual.
    For example, domestic violence, the empirical evidence clearly demonstrates that it’s 50/50 and systemic non reciprocal domestic violence is perpetrated by women twice the rate of men. Yet in family law we find men with extreme proclivity guilty by allegation alone. The outcomes will see him removed from his home, his child, his entire life. Only an ideology driven with such utter malevolence towards the male can have somehow circumvented the rationale mind and found its way into family law.
    We have to awaken ourselves and deal with this evil.
    This ideology has an evil unholy alliance with corrupt capitalism.
    We have the worst of the left that ripped the family apart and worst of the right that feeds on the destroyed souls of those unlucky enough to encounter the family court system.
    I consider every family solicitor, judge, social worker, cafcass officer as the most malevolent individuals on the face of the earth.

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      i think just for this line alone
      “I consider every family solicitor, judge, social worker, cafcass officer as the most malevolent individuals on the face of the earth.”

      i agree with what you say but im amazed they published this post.

  23. Lian Harris says:

    Hmmmm.. … so when you say corruption you may perceive it as bribery in some aspect…..

    For most walking into a predetermined hearing is deemed ‘corrupt’ how can your article 6 rights be upheld when the outcome has been determined between lawyers and cafcass….

    So then you question who benefits? Well the lawyers cafcass and judges, the lawyers can drag out proceedings for a protracted amount of time swindling the legal aid agency, cafcass then keep their contracts and bonuses with the firm, ….as for the judge, well, I know of one judge, whose husband was a family lawyer and for better word cooked the books for financial gain to the tune of £70k!!!

    “FAMILY COURT AND THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD BEING PARAMOUNT….mmmmm that simply doesn’t come into it….

    So family courts are corrupt to the core!!. Cafcass abusing children since 2001, judges condone pujury in courts and the child abuse….

    4 years experience and dealings with the most corrupt judge in country tells me this….

    HENCE I’M GOING INTO IMMIGRATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS!!!

    Oh dear have I spoke out about the family court again!!!

  24. Matt Matulewicz says:

    Dr. Manhattan posted:

    ” i think just for this line alone
    “I consider every family solicitor, judge, social worker, cafcass officer as the most malevolent individuals on the face of the earth.”

    i agree with what you say but im amazed they published this post.”

    I am not amazed at all. The fact is that it doesn’t matter what anyone says anywhere. Nothing will change. The divorce courts are a money making cartel and the rot goes right to the house of lords. So it isn’t in their interests to change anything. All the time they can operate under cover of secrecy, they will abuse the process of law to make easy money.

    • Milan says:

      I agree entirely about divorce solicitors. My friend has handed over thousands of pounds to several different divorce solicitors, who have all done jack ll to help her. She is no further down the line than she was at the beginning. They ring her up and demand another £2,000,and she is none the wiser about what this is being used for.She has credit card bills coming out of her ears!!

  25. matt says:

    Looks like any real comments that highlight the truth about the divorce courts are now being suppressed on this website. My final comment on here therefore is as follows: The real dishonesty lies in defending a court system which is proved time and time again – the evidence is overwhelming – to be not fit for the job it is supposed to do. Time and time again people are routinely betrayed by this parody of justice. To deny the truth, to pretend that the reality is untrue is the real dishonesty. And there can only be two reasons for it: A. Stupidity – and I don’t believe that there are many stupid lawyers. B. Corruption. It is an inescapable fact that divorce lawyers charge extortionate rates for, in many cases, lying and perverting the course of justice.

    It doesn’t take the brains of a Law Lord to see that the weight of evidence leads to the inescapable conclusion that the UK divorce courts are corrupt.

    As I have said before, the corruption goes all the way to the House of Lords, so nothing will change any time soon.

    This blog or whatever it is called, is pointless. There is a requirement for a new website, one that names and shames those judges and lawyers who continue to destroy justice in the UK. Since I live outside the UK, I might just start such a website.

  26. Loz says:

    I experienced the corrupt family court. So traumatic and dragged out and because the otherside had more money the whole interests of my child got turned upside down. I got tricked into putting in an application paying fees when I was not supposed to pay fees then due to circonstances and found out too late to have a refund. Theres no support for individuals such as myself. It was like a witchhunt I was treated terribly as a victim of dv as has my child been. I then had to pay again to get the best outcome for my child that I could do be told by my lovely solicitor that had I had her from the start the outcome would of been what it should have been. Weve been left failed, traumatised and in debt by this system.

  27. matt says:

    And today I read in the news that judges are to be given a 32% pay rise, putting them ever deeper in the governments pocket.

    The UK looks more like a banana republic every day.

  28. Andrea Ng says:

    No binding precedents. Lawyers fees paid first. No solvency. No fair hearings. No equal hearings. What part of honest is this? Of course its dodgy.

  29. Milan says:

    As an outsider looking in and supporting an individual going through absolute hell at the moment, I am astounded on a day to day basis about what I am reading about how deep and how wide spread this corruption is. What has happened to compassion, what has happened to empathy, what has happened to understanding, what has happened to treating people like human beings?!!! Money and greed drive everything. Unfortunately we live in an “I’m alright Jack,not in ‘my’ garden society”. Social class, gender discrimination and disability discrimination are the main determiners in the success rate, or failure of family court cases. Discuss….

    • Andy M says:

      Just been through a divorce and the family court is a disgrace. Not sure if it’s corruption or just that they have no respect of fairness to men. I got treated like dirt and the settlement I got was ridiculous unfair. It’s high time somebody sorted out this utter mess and unfairness. I am pretty much penniless now whilst my ex will have an amazing life now. It is no wonder how somebody men kill themselves, a lot of the time it’s down to the family courts.

  30. oliver says:

    MY CASE.
    I enter the family court “Peterborough” as a father looking to see his daughter again after 5 months, and the nightmare lived in that slaughterhouse is not bearable by any living being.
    after 2 years of the case I have been a kidnapper, abuser and a potential killer, all that because both the judge and the cafcasss officer together with my ex partner prepared to extend the case and make the case worse to only discredit my father’s skills.
    All absolutely everything I had to deny with solid evidences of video and photos officials documents and even providing that the corrupt judge who was managing my case he made as trues all the false allegations against me of the psychopath of my ex and mother of my daughter.

  31. Karen James says:

    I am sure the author is sincere in his belief the courts are not corrupt.
    I have been in court where a judge XX made up evidence against me to be able to give the order he wanted I am sure he would not have done this if I was represented. He could not have hoped to get away with it.

  32. Matt says:

    I am not at all sure that the author is sincere in his belief the courts are not corrupt. The evidence here in this tiny sample of examples of injustice suffered by the respondents should alone be sufficient to cause alarm bells to be ringing stridently all the way up to the House of Lords. But it isn’t. Across the entire country people are being abused by the divorce courts, the internet and the press carry articles almost weekly about the dishonesty of lawyers and judges – and not only in the divorce courts. But nothing will change because the legal system is set up to prevent ordinary people from getting justice. And when people are victims of court abuse and injustice there is no channel for redress. The only routes available to them to try to get injustice revoked are paved with yet more greedy lawyers and more corrupt judges.

    But as Nigel Farage remarked in the European parliament a year or so ago, when people are continually denied their rights by corrupt systems – in this case he was referring to political systems – eventually they will turn to direct action as the only means of obtaining satisfaction. I don’t advocate this, but I am beginning to think that it is inevitable because the legal system in the UK and with particular regard to the divorce courts, has been manipulated to become nothing more than a money earning machine for judges and lawyers alike. Justice has little to do with it. And the authors views are glaring proof that he is a part of the problem.

  33. matt says:

    Direct action …… Consider this: If, instead of leaving my home, the home that I had bought with hard-earned money working in some of the worst countries on earth, if I had not endured 10 years of abuse and violence which caused me to have a breakdown before I managed to leave if instead, I had reacted with the same level of violence that she had used against me and if in that reaction she had died by my actions I would have been sent to jail. However, after a few years in jail, I would have been released and I would still have my pension and my houses. That any person should have to write such words is a terrible indictment of the injustice and corruption that is endemic in the UK divorce courts.

    Pretending that the UK divorce courts are not corrupt, that is the real dishonesty. Defending such a perverted system of injustice, that is the real dishonesty.

  34. Alan says:

    Would your denial of the blatant and widespread corruption in this area be because you like your share of the more than £1.5 Billion that is paid to family lawyers in the UK every year?
    I notice that my other post mentioning this figure seems to have disappeared – maybe it’s a coincidence, but I think that huge amount of cash is the dirty secret that you and other family lawyers will always try to keep out of public view.
    Lets see if this post lasts at all.

  35. Alan says:

    one more comment…
    If a legal advisor (part of the court management) organises her own a private hearing which is not ordered by or overseen by any Judge or the Justices Clerk. This would seem to be criminal. Are you saying that this is not an example of corruption?

    Because this has happened, a court has run at least one illegal hearing to completely cut out judicial oversight. This court at least, has become a rogue organisation.

    Incidentally, just how the MoJ works internally. The ‘Customer Investigation Team’ at the Petty France site refuse to do anything until the court have had a ‘chance to respond’. The court administration just refuse to make that response – completely stalling any internal investigation – for over 3 months and counting.

  36. Matt says:

    From reading the comments on this website for a couple of years – and having personal experience of the shambles that are the UK family courts – I can only say that that Stowe Family Law are impervious to the realities of the trade that they pursue.

    In my daytime job (I am a bomb disposal engineer) I have to deal with the results of professional criminals and terrorists who think that it is acceptable to terrorise and kill people for gain. Sometimes that gain is shock and horror pursuant to political change. The UK divorce courts destroy families and individuals solely for personal gain.

    Frankly, I see little difference between any terrorist group and the current, so called Family Courts.

    The main difference is that where possible, as part of my job, I collect evidence that is put before Courts of real Justice, in order to put criminals where they belong, either in jail or at the end of a rope.

    Very regrettably, in the case of the UK Family Courts, there is little or no justice. And what is worse, there is no prospect of redress for the people who are abused and robbed by the Family Courts.

    During the course of the last twenty years or so I have, in company with others in related fields of employment, been responsible for putting not a few criminals where they belong. I really wish that there was an honest and clear path to do the same to the criminals who infest the Family Courts in the guise of judges and lawyers.

  37. clive says:

    Hi,
    Their maybe a way to combat the corruption and hold them to account. Offences under the bribery act 2010 and legal services act 2007 in my understanding got brought in to stop corruption. But the police wont get involved as they are usually linked with the family justice boards and hmcts and judiciary, however their is such a thing as a private prosecution that could be started and then asked for an out of region CPS to take it over. This is not a recommendation just something I have seen.

  38. Alan says:

    I’ve had more time to figure this out. People are looking the wrong direction when they accuse Judges or magistrates of being corrupt. Not saying that none of them are but the people best placed to control court hearings are Legal Advisors.
    These people are in direct daily contact with the family lawyers who are given what is now over £2 Billion annually in the UK. (That figure is from market research and the government, it is only for the money openly paid, not any ‘extra’ cash handed over. But it gives a picture of the sums of money flooding this area.)
    Legal Advisors have a direct line to this money, they control listing of cases and I’ve got a transcript with one just giving a magistrate almost every word the spoke (the magistrate used only 13 words of their own).
    Also Legal Advisors were recently given100 judicial powers, but have no oversight organisation such as the JCIO. They are para-judicials.
    These are the perfect conditions to create corruption.

  39. Private says:

    Can we assume you too ignore the Ministry of Justice’s Harm Report? Family court is horrendously, inexcusably abusive to kids and victims of domestic abuse yet nothing has changed. Begs the question if it relates to the correlation between psychopathy and positions of power. There’s little more pathetic than abusing abused kids and women. Was advised Britain’s judiciary is so abusive they’ve attracted the attention of the UN and Cyprus offers refugee status and you want to moan about semantics – get some morals and a spine!

  40. Anon says:

    The real dishonesty is those who attempt to deflect the corruption and abuse that exists within the family courts by saying ‘calling the FC is the real dishonesty’. Therefore, it is you who is being dishonest with the statement you have put out. I have over nine years experience of the family courts, and within that time I witnessed and experienced perjury by psychologists and Cafcass, collusion between solicitors and barristers, and worst of all the state sanctioned abuse of children and secondary traumatisation of those who have already been abused by a perpetrator, only to be abused all over again by judges and solicitors.

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